(NYT) – Initially, it was the weirdness of a ship stuck in the Suez Canal, single-handedly growling world trade in a world already submerged in a pandemic that drew more attention of the online world than an inspirational speech. But it was the photo of a tiny digger working on its mammoth task, sealing the fate of Ever Given as the basis for thousands of relatable memes.
The dredger – which, despite a titanic size difference, did its best to remove the ship – was the perfect metaphor. It is a message to people for the thought that we could narrow our to-do lists, finally stop hesitating, or end our thousands of unread emails get to the point? Zero?
Maybe it’s not a motivational speech. But was it the visual representation of the low relief that an outdoor walk can provide from the doom and darkness of a pandemic-ridden world?
Or did we just try to do our best despite all the adversities? And it is how to define success.
Soon the 1,300-foot-long Ever Given was so spread over social media feeds that its many brightly colored containers and large white font that stated the name of the company that operates the ship spawned a viral tweet telling the people showed how to “steal your look”.
After becoming the subject of meme after meme for the past week, the stalled ship was soon fertilized by others of its kind, including some of Bernie Sanders’ most memorable moments.
And it wouldn’t be a full-fledged internet moment without a website specially designed to answer a simple question. In that case, was the ship still stuck?
As of Saturday, the answer was still “yes”.
